I only know a few industrial designers and they're all male. Well actually, I'm not sure about one, but we won't go there.
The idiots are usually the human factors and ergonomics consultants with LOTS of input (i.e. constraints) from the customer. Most appliances are run through tests that resemble "work flow" studies. These are recorded and evaluated. There's also input from past experience by the vendor. Note that panel layout preferences vary substantially by culture and country.
There's also some rather odd psychology that making cooking too simple does not sell. Various schemes for "instant cooking" in an oven have been tried over the years. Just throw in the turkey, shove the thermistor sensor into the turkey, and the oven will do the necessary cooking time calculations. Works great, but nobody will buy it. Unless the housewife actually does something to the dinner, it's not cooking. That's also why instant TV dinners often insist that you must defrost the contents, stir the contents, and continue nuking. Some brands insisted that you add butter or a little water. Without the additional steps, it's not cooking.
The same is true of operating kitchen appliances. When it's too simple, nobody buys it. It would be fairly trivial to bar code common microwaveable packages with cooking times and intensities. Just shove the tray into the oven, the bar code reader grabs the data, and it's done right. No thinking required. One problem is that it won't sell because it's not cooking.
Before you protest, ask yourself why automobile vendors still offer stick shift transmissions in new vehicles? It's because a substantial segment of the population think it's not driving without also shifting.
You want the oven to be programmable? That would increase the complexity, add to the cost, increase the support load, etc. The common assumption is that you use the oven and then turn it off. At best, it may save the current time for a few minutes during a power failure. That may change as more appliances are wired into kitchen networks, but that's currently science fiction and marketing (same thing).
Now, that's bad. It might be double insulated. The display might be deemed electrically hot and must be separated by two insulating devices. If there are two clear plastic filters, it's possible. (Note: I'm guessing).
Mine doesn't even have a light. I usually leave the door open after cooking to allow the inevitable liquids that have slopped onto the tray to evaporate.
Incidentally, there's nothing in the rules or fizix that says a microwave oven has to be a rectangular prism:
Argh. Supernews got sold to Giganews. They switched servers today. After renumbering articles, I find that all the spam I've deleted in the past month is now back. Sigh.